I’ve offered to run a one-shot while our DM takes a break, and it’s a good opportunity to play out an adventure idea I’ve had for a while. Since DDB is such a wonderful sounding board, I thought I’d throw it out here to see if there is anything I need to flesh out or tweak before the big day.
I’ll be referring to major elements and plot points that I’d rather the players not see. If you’re one of them, turn back now!
Okay, so the setting is a kingdom with a fairytale, Disney-fied feel. Magic is a rare and wondrous thing (mostly through magical objects, boons from supernatural beneficiaries, etc.). Here’s what the players whipped up for their level 5 PCs:
- Fiadh Ironwood, an old woman who has retired from her life as a prize fighter called “The Ironwood Witch”, but is now seen in her local community as an actual witch.(Human Open Hand Monk)
- Henrietta McCoy, a bookworm who was accidentally cursed with a monstrous form, this “Beastly Beauty” has come to terms with her new life but seeks answers for what happened to her. (Bugbear Inquisitive Rogue)
- Glitz, a circus barker with a touch of magic about him. (Human Eloquence Bard)
- Rey McScriff, a sailor-turned-teamster with a penchant for adventure and fine cooking. (Human Champion Fighter)
- Lord Farquiint, an arrogant, if diminutive, nobleman who seeks prestige and renown. (Half-elf Glory Paladin)
They’re starting off with a request from the Rebers, some of Fiadh’s neighbors who have come to her seeking aid; their daughter has fallen into a whirlwind romance and married Prince Broden. She now lives with him at Castle Marchen, and has seemingly cut ties with them. They’ve tried to go see her personally, but were turned away. Maybe the local witch can help?
So Fiadh gathers the others (to be accomplished, as requested by the players, in a brief scripted introduction to streamline exposition and get on with the game), and they begin the journey to Castle Marchen to find (and maybe rescue) Mayla Reber from her “Prince Charming”. On the way, they meet a dwarf named Madb Limboot, a local pixie trapper who offers them supper and stories. The supper, a dish he calls “Eureka!”, appears to be empty bowls until the PCs make a successful Wis save, when it becomes a sumptuous meal of their wildest imaginations (a la the Neverfood scene from Hook). The story is about the local goblins who call themselves the Half Heads, after the being they revere, a ghost who wanders the Enchanted Forest called the Half-headed Lady.
Spooky stuff, but that night, those who made the WIS save on the Eureka can see an otherwise invisible phantom wandering the woods: it’s the ghost from Madb’s story. She comes to them, and they can see that the top of her head is largely missing, the skull curling in like a rotting jack-o-lantern. She’s obviously insane, possibly from before her death, and demands to know who they are and what they’re doing so close to the castle. The encounter will likely end with her siccing her goblin goons on them. Madb will either die in the skirmish or be frightened off. In any case he leaves behind two key items: a large, magical pan he called his “Whimsy Wok”, and his recipe book, filled with spells to be produced with the magical cooking tool; sweet loot for the encounter!
The next day, the party reaches Castle Marchen, a quaint little fairytale castle on a small lake island. They have to convince the guards to let them in, or find some other way of entry. One way or another, they gain audience with King Vethant and Prince Avenant, who will inform them that the new princess is with child, and resting during a difficult pregnancy. Any efforts the party makes to see her personally will be stonewalled, citing orders from the castle’s miracle man, Gralassk, but they are free to stay the night in the hopes that her condition improves enough to see them.
At some point, the party will notice a painting of the king, a much younger Avenant, and Queen Inzella, who bears a striking resemblance to the Half-headed Lady. They can learn that she suffered complications of her own during her second pregnancy, and fled madly into the woods, where goblins overtook and murdered her. The king and prince will have an odd lack of grief at retelling this tragedy, and Avenant may even flirt with the females of the party, doubly odd because a), he
At some point, a young scullery maid named Lenya will warn them to leave. She doesn’t know much, but she knows that Prince Avenant has had multiple wives (rescued from dragon-guarded keeps, from wicked step mothers, or other states of distress), who have all either died in childbirth or have left under mysterious circumstances. Others have come looking for them, and have occasionally had to be driven away or even killed at the point of Avenant’s sword. Whatever course of action the party chooses, Lenya will be found dead soon thereafter, her head mutilated in like manner to that of the queen’s...
Gralassk will come to meet them at some time, inviting them to finally see Mayla. He’ll lead them to see her, but it is a trap: Avenant and his guards will attempt to capture and subdue them. They can break away and run, but will find themselves in a strange, twisting dungeon, and eventually find a room full of dark experimentations, including the dissected corpse of Queen Inzella, her unborn child, whose body has been twisted into some strange hybrid aberration, and continuations of that line of experimentation. Mayla will be there, shackled and terrified, and begging to be freed. The party can do so, but they will have to face Gralassk himself, who will drop his disguise and reveal himself to be an Illithid Arcanist, surviving on the brains of goblins, Avenant’s romantic conquests when his experiments with them have failed, and, of course, nosy adventurers.
That’s what I’ve got at this point. Things can obviously go in very different directions, based on the players’ choices, but those are the basic elements of the game. Is there anything I should add/subtract/change to make this one-shot work well?
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I’ve offered to run a one-shot while our DM takes a break, and it’s a good opportunity to play out an adventure idea I’ve had for a while. Since DDB is such a wonderful sounding board, I thought I’d throw it out here to see if there is anything I need to flesh out or tweak before the big day.
I’ll be referring to major elements and plot points that I’d rather the players not see. If you’re one of them, turn back now!
Okay, so the setting is a kingdom with a fairytale, Disney-fied feel. Magic is a rare and wondrous thing (mostly through magical objects, boons from supernatural beneficiaries, etc.). Here’s what the players whipped up for their level 5 PCs:
- Fiadh Ironwood, an old woman who has retired from her life as a prize fighter called “The Ironwood Witch”, but is now seen in her local community as an actual witch.(Human Open Hand Monk)
- Henrietta McCoy, a bookworm who was accidentally cursed with a monstrous form, this “Beastly Beauty” has come to terms with her new life but seeks answers for what happened to her. (Bugbear Inquisitive Rogue)
- Glitz, a circus barker with a touch of magic about him. (Human Eloquence Bard)
- Rey McScriff, a sailor-turned-teamster with a penchant for adventure and fine cooking. (Human Champion Fighter)
- Lord Farquiint, an arrogant, if diminutive, nobleman who seeks prestige and renown. (Half-elf Glory Paladin)
They’re starting off with a request from the Rebers, some of Fiadh’s neighbors who have come to her seeking aid; their daughter has fallen into a whirlwind romance and married Prince Broden. She now lives with him at Castle Marchen, and has seemingly cut ties with them. They’ve tried to go see her personally, but were turned away. Maybe the local witch can help?
So Fiadh gathers the others (to be accomplished, as requested by the players, in a brief scripted introduction to streamline exposition and get on with the game), and they begin the journey to Castle Marchen to find (and maybe rescue) Mayla Reber from her “Prince Charming”. On the way, they meet a dwarf named Madb Limboot, a local pixie trapper who offers them supper and stories. The supper, a dish he calls “Eureka!”, appears to be empty bowls until the PCs make a successful Wis save, when it becomes a sumptuous meal of their wildest imaginations (a la the Neverfood scene from Hook). The story is about the local goblins who call themselves the Half Heads, after the being they revere, a ghost who wanders the Enchanted Forest called the Half-headed Lady.
Spooky stuff, but that night, those who made the WIS save on the Eureka can see an otherwise invisible phantom wandering the woods: it’s the ghost from Madb’s story. She comes to them, and they can see that the top of her head is largely missing, the skull curling in like a rotting jack-o-lantern. She’s obviously insane, possibly from before her death, and demands to know who they are and what they’re doing so close to the castle. The encounter will likely end with her siccing her goblin goons on them. Madb will either die in the skirmish or be frightened off. In any case he leaves behind two key items: a large, magical pan he called his “Whimsy Wok”, and his recipe book, filled with spells to be produced with the magical cooking tool; sweet loot for the encounter!
The next day, the party reaches Castle Marchen, a quaint little fairytale castle on a small lake island. They have to convince the guards to let them in, or find some other way of entry. One way or another, they gain audience with King Vethant and Prince Avenant, who will inform them that the new princess is with child, and resting during a difficult pregnancy. Any efforts the party makes to see her personally will be stonewalled, citing orders from the castle’s miracle man, Gralassk, but they are free to stay the night in the hopes that her condition improves enough to see them.
At some point, the party will notice a painting of the king, a much younger Avenant, and Queen Inzella, who bears a striking resemblance to the Half-headed Lady. They can learn that she suffered complications of her own during her second pregnancy, and fled madly into the woods, where goblins overtook and murdered her. The king and prince will have an odd lack of grief at retelling this tragedy, and Avenant may even flirt with the females of the party, doubly odd because a), he
At some point, a young scullery maid named Lenya will warn them to leave. She doesn’t know much, but she knows that Prince Avenant has had multiple wives (rescued from dragon-guarded keeps, from wicked step mothers, or other states of distress), who have all either died in childbirth or have left under mysterious circumstances. Others have come looking for them, and have occasionally had to be driven away or even killed at the point of Avenant’s sword. Whatever course of action the party chooses, Lenya will be found dead soon thereafter, her head mutilated in like manner to that of the queen’s...
Gralassk will come to meet them at some time, inviting them to finally see Mayla. He’ll lead them to see her, but it is a trap: Avenant and his guards will attempt to capture and subdue them. They can break away and run, but will find themselves in a strange, twisting dungeon, and eventually find a room full of dark experimentations, including the dissected corpse of Queen Inzella, her unborn child, whose body has been twisted into some strange hybrid aberration, and continuations of that line of experimentation. Mayla will be there, shackled and terrified, and begging to be freed. The party can do so, but they will have to face Gralassk himself, who will drop his disguise and reveal himself to be an Illithid Arcanist, surviving on the brains of goblins, Avenant’s romantic conquests when his experiments with them have failed, and, of course, nosy adventurers.
That’s what I’ve got at this point. Things can obviously go in very different directions, based on the players’ choices, but those are the basic elements of the game. Is there anything I should add/subtract/change to make this one-shot work well?